Conduct a straw poll of all those who have watched the current Stoke side this season and, when it comes to their style of play, words such as "direct" and "physical" would feature more than most.

Unless, that is, you're Potters boss Tony Pulis, who took offence at Glenn Hoddle's description of his side as such in the build-up to Saturday's game.

Pulis must have bought himself a pair of those Sven-Goran Eriksson spectacles which separate footballing fact from fiction if he thinks his side are the new Brazil, all fancy flicks, breathtaking skills and spraying the ball around like there's no tomorrow.

Stoke are direct and they are physical, and it's served them highly well this season thank you very much, so where was Pulis's problem?

Maybe he was still grizzling at the nature of Wolves' 94th-minute equaliser, when Carl Cort flicked home a Lee Naylor free-kick which Stoke believe should never have been awarded after Cort, in his opinion, handled after being pushed in the back.

But even that was a sense of justice being done.

Because for such a big and powerful bunch, Stoke seem to bruise very easily, and there wouldn't have been four minutes of injury time had several of their troops not deigned to play on the generosity of referee Chris Foy to receive lengthy spells of treatment just yards from the touchline.

No, it was difficult to understand how Pulis thought Hoddle was being disrespectful simply for stating fact after a hardfought battle in which Wolves played almost all the football, and yet Stoke almost came away with all three points.

By the time Gifton Noel-Williams had taken advantage of mistakes from Kenny Miller and Michael Oakes to put Stoke in front Wolves had already dominated possession, with Miller and Cort both squandering more than decent chances.

Stoke too had gone close, twice through Dave Brammer, and they should also have extended their lead when Noel-Williams shot wide with the goal at his mercy shortly after the break.

But such attacking intent from the visitors was rare, and they needed keeper Steve Simonsen to be right at the top of his game to deny Mark Kennedy and Seyi Olofinjana as Wolves --sparked by raids down the wing by the excellent Lee Naylor and Rohan Ricketts - pressed forward in search of an equaliser.

Then came Cort's last gasp leveller, the cue for that post-match acrimony which also featured discussions of coin throwing at both Michael Duberry and Rob Edwards.

Back on the pitch, of all the draws under Hoddle - and this was the 12th in 17 games - this was one of those to be filed in the "should have won" column, even if it took such a late, late show to rescue even a point.

Wolves have suddenly clicked into gear, and as Paul Ince admitted afterwards: "If only the season was starting now". Sadly, it's not, and Wolves' late vein of form is surely not going to be enough to buy them a seat at the play-off table in a few weeks time.